World premiere at Abbey for Offaly playwright

The world premiere of Offaly native Marina Carr"s new play 'Marble' will take place on February 10 at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Opening on Tuesday February 17, Marble is the seventh Marina Carr world premiere to be produced by the Abbey and thus continues the national theatre"s relationship with the internationally celebrated playwright. Marina Carr was born in 1964 and brought up in Banagher. She graduated from University College Dublin with a degree in English and Philosophy. Carr has written twelve plays to date. She has been Writer-in-Residence at the Abbey Theatre and Trinity College, Dublin, and is a member of Aosdána. She has won many awards for her work including, the EM Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her first collection of plays is published by Faber and Faber while her second collection is due out early this year. A sharp-witted and deeply insightful play, Marble is a compelling study of marriage, friendship and the power of the subconscious. The lives of two couples start to unravel as lines between their real life and dream worlds begin to blur. Commissioned by the Abbey Theatre this new work by the writer of The Mai, Portia Coughlan and Woman and Scarecrow unearths the true nature of desire and fidelity, courage and conformity. At the directorial helm is the critically-acclaimed UK-based director Jeremy Herrin who makes his Abbey debut with this production. The top cast is Derbhle Crotty, Peter Hanly, Stuart McQuarrie and Aisling O"Sullivan, while the creative team includes Robert Innes Hopkins on set and costume design, lighting design by Paul Keogan and musical composition by Conor Linehan.